


“Betté Steadhart, Ninth Handmaiden in the Third Class for Padmé Amidala”

by Polgarawolf



Series: Star Wars: You Became to Me [24]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: F/F, F/M, Handmaidens, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), POV Original Character, Sacrificial ethics, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-10-24
Updated: 2007-10-24
Packaged: 2017-11-13 08:48:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/501662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polgarawolf/pseuds/Polgarawolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is fifteen random but chronological moments from the life of Betté Steadhart, who is, quite literally, the ninth handmaiden in the third training class of potential handmaidens chosen from among a large pool of applicants for the job for the newly elected Nabooian Queen Padmé Amidala. There is an actual story here – one small thread among the vast woven tapestry of life that is the living history of the galaxy, stretched out and twisted, knotted into the whole, curled down among the roots of time, connecting various moments together – but one must read between the lines to capture it. It is not precisely the truth, for the subtle story of these moments is sketched out here in words, and, in the sin of writing down a life, it inevitably changes the shape of things. But it is nevertheless a form of truth. (From a certain point of view . . . )</p>
            </blockquote>





	“Betté Steadhart, Ninth Handmaiden in the Third Class for Padmé Amidala”

**Author's Note:**

> **Warning:** This story functions as a sort of compressed codex for Betté Steadhart’s life, as she is going to be written (or at least referred to) in my not even nearly complete AU **Star Wars** series **_You Became to Me_**. If anything doesn’t make sense, please feel free to ask!
> 
>  **Author’s Notes: 1.)** Again, for anyone interested, this not-quite-a-story is compatible with my SW AU series **_You Became to Me_** , including my _Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith_ trio, if you squint at a couple of things sideways and view a few others solely through the lens of Betté Steadhart’s eyes. **2.)** Although this is technically modeled on a prompt set that I borrowed from somewhere or another on the LJ (I really don’t recall from where anymore, precisely, though if someone would like to set the record straight, I’ll add the info for the community in question here in my notes), it’s not really meant to function as a response to whatever the challenge actually is that’s associated with said LJ prompt set. I just used the specific prompts to give me a reason to string together a backstory of sorts for Betté. **3.)** Readers might want to consider the fact that Betté, like a lot of native Nabooians, is fairly strong in the Force, but that she hasn’t received any training whatsoever to speak of and so has no real conscious control over that sensitivity to the Force. **4.)** Readers interested in knowing who the physical models are for original characters like Betté should please consult the latest versions of my posted lists of cast original and EU characters and for handmaid(en)s and other important Nabooian characters, which are available on my LJ! For clarity’s sake, though, Betté is modeled on a teenaged Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Amilla Alcroft can be pictured as an approximately fifteen-year-old (at the time of the Trade Federation’s invasion of Naboo) Vanessa Hudgens, while Darvis Kolan can be pictured as an approximately sixteen-year-old (at the time of the Trade Federation’s invasion) Colton Haynes. Please note that characters who may be alluded to but not referenced by name (certain family members of original characters, for example) are considered too minor to be cast at this time, and readers should feel free to imagine them howsoever they wish! **5.)** Handmaidens often tend to pair off, as is the case here, with Betté Steadhart and Emmé Harwood, a fellow handmaiden from the same training class (hence, the relationship label for original female characters and the underage warning). **6.)** Speaking of pairings, I've labeled this to indicate both Padmé Amidala's and Sabé's love for Obi-Wan, because, even though it may not be specifically mentioned in this character study piece, handmaid(en)s know so much about their sworn Lady that readers can be certain that Betté, like all of Amidala's other handmaid(en)s who knew him (or knew of him), would have surely known about both their Lady's and Sabé's love and high regard for Obi-Wan, just as they would have known about how much Amidala and Sabé love one another!
> 
>  **Story Notes:** **1.)** Since this is part of a larger on-going AU series that in some respects fairly closely mirrors or follows events of canon (up to a certain point, anyway), readers should please keep in mind that certain characters and events from the prequel movies/novelizations of the films and even events/places/people referenced in the EU or Expanded Universe may be mentioned or alluded to in this story. If anyone has any questions about whether someone or something is AU, canon, or EU canon, please feel free to ask! **2.)** Readers should probably be aware that I am roughly estimating (guestimating might be a better word) the original publication date for most of the character study pieces in the **_You Became to Me_** series (and indeed most of my stories, especially the ones written over a long period of time), based on when I roughed out notes for them in the story notebooks I carry everywhere with me and when I can recall having worked on certain groups of characters. The year is going to be accurate, but the month might be off and the day will almost certainly be randomly chosen, since the online account I had originally posted many of these stories to no longer exists. I tend to go back and edit things that are in series whenever I get the time or a new idea causes me to have to make room for something else plot-wise, and odds are good that a story could have been edited for typos as recently as the day of its posting here, but the original version will likely be much older and fairly close to the publication date that I attach to it, if anyone's curious!

**“Betté Steadhart, Ninth Handmaiden in the Third Class for Padmé Amidala”**

 

 **01.) Ward:** She’s technically a ward of the state: the awful lightning-struck fire that claimed her parents and older sister’s family – including her sister’s husband, parents by marriage, and newly born baby son, sparing Betté only because she was spending the night at a friend’s house – occurred when she was twelve, which is technically old enough for her to be considered an extremely young adult and so not suitable for fostering or adoption, but she was nevertheless taken in by her best friend’s family, and so she’s essentially an Alcroft in everything but name.

 **02.) Believe:** Amilla is a good, kind, warm-hearted person, but she just doesn’t care all that much about people she doesn’t know from her own everyday life, and so she cannot believe that Betté wants to risk her neck working as a handmaiden for some politician she doesn’t even know, when she could so easily go into politics on her own merit, instead; Betté, though, wants to make a difference for the whole of the planet, if she can, and not just the residents of the city of Vis, and so she finally manages to convince her, after a lot of generally (unfortunately) less than calmly or diplomatically worded back and forth debate, that she can do more good for more people by working behind the scenes in the royal court.

 **03.) Announcement:** She waits to submit her application to the program until after Amilla has finally been openly promised to her longtime sweetheart, Darvis Kolan, and they’ve had their formal announcement party, but no longer than that, and she is not overly surprised when she is accepted and offered a place in with the later half of the third class of handmaiden trainees.

 **04.) Pass:** She’s a slender, pretty brunette of about fifteen years of age with dark brown eyes and a slightly ovoid yet somewhat heart-shaped face, and she knows she could pass as the Queen, in one of those insanely elaborate costumes and traditional white mask-like makeup, if she had to, but honestly she would just as soon not have to (being much more interested in helping Amidala to “clarify” her thoughts about policy and new laws and trade issues and various humanitarian and sentientarian works than in essentially learning how to perfect the playing of dress-up and being called on to impersonate the Queen during various, quite possibly dangerous public and semi-public appearances), and so she’s quite glad to see that an apparent possible decoy and even a replacement decoy (if something bad should ever happen to the first one) have already been singled out from their class for that kind of extra training.

 **05.) Extraordinary:** The Queen is an extraordinary young woman, someone with so much personal power of presence and charisma that walking into her presence for the first time is rather akin to walking headlong into a brick wall, only in a good way instead of a bad way, if that makes any kind of sense, and, the first time she hears that the other handmaiden trainees have taken to referring to Amidala as a living flame of a woman, she seizes upon the description eagerly, so she’ll have a way to try to explain the sheer power of the Queen’s presence to Amilla (later telling her that Amidala’s personality has such a strong impact on those she encounters that it can be felt physically, and that most individuals compare meeting the Queen for the first time to the sensation of being struck, though the emotions produced are not those associated with fear, for the words most often used to describe the Queen’s presence assert a combination of fiercely bright intelligence and lovingly warm compassion so great as to produce what one handmaiden trainee – in a phrase later known to billions – would, afterwards, deem “a living flame of a woman,” with the fire in question being not that of the destructive devourer, but rather that of the beacon, the guide, the warm and life-giving illuminator . . . ), when she asks about her.

 **06.) Surname:** The surname of the girl who’s been chosen from their training class to be the Queen’s actual decoy nags and nags and nags at her, teasing the edges of her memory, until it finally occurs to her that the name is familiar because it matches that of a name from a news story that her foster mother had evidently followed closely enough and cared sufficiently about to keep some newspaper flimsiplasts and even a few HoloVids for, keepsakes that she had later discovered as a child, and she remembers, then, that the story was about the girl’s mother . . . and abruptly realizes why it must be that Dormé sometimes seems so leery of closeness with others, given her status as the possible issue of her mother’s violent rape and attempted murder.

 **07.) Curiosity:** She feels rather badly for Dormé right up until the moment they get to Varykino and the girl abruptly becomes essentially as knowledgeable and as adept in virtually every single subject they are being taught as their instructors seem to be, at which point she stops feeling pity and starts feeling more puzzled curiosity over the presence of someone so obviously talented who has, nonetheless, apparently willingly decided to join the ranks of the handmaidens of the Queen instead of going out and running for a position like Princess of Theed, so that she might, perhaps, eventually become Queen herself, after Amidala.

 **08.) Miserable:** She is in fairly good shape because she loves the water and has always been an excellent swimmer and she has the good fortune to naturally be a good shot, both with most blasters and old-fashioned projectile weapons, but she’s not a very good dancer, she’s frightened of weapons with edges sharp enough to cut, and she lacks a great deal of actual physical strength, in terms of sheer muscle mass, so she is miserable half the time at Varykino and too exhausted to even really dwell overly much on why it is that they’re being taken back to the Palace so soon.

 **09.) Invasion:** In retrospect, everybody seems to have known that something awful was going to happen, but no one seems to have guessed (with the possible exception, perhaps, of some of the cowardly and black-hearted traitors who went over to their enemy’s side as soon as their infernal droid armies landed and began seizing control of Theed itself) that what was going to happen would involve an actual (and unfortunately successful) invasion of their world by the Trade Federation’s droid forces, and everything is such a confusion of danger and running and dodging blaster bolts and trying to get the extremely young Princess of Theed and the various decoys of their Queen to some place of safety while their Queen is off the Goddess alone only knows where or with whom – trying to find a way off the planet, so she can get to Coruscant and report on the Trade Federation’s unlawful actions – that it takes a good long while for the true depth of the evil that’s been visited upon the peoples of Naboo to really sink in, and, fortunately, most of them are of such a nature that it is sheer righteous fury and concern for the people, for what the Trade Federation has done, that wins out over terror or the apathy of feeling their position to be hopeless, when there’s finally time and safety enough to begin to process what has happened.

 **10.) Occupation:** The Queen is gone for eighteen and a half days, spread out over twenty: in the approximately twenty-five days of occupation of Naboo by the Trade Federation, she learns how to do things and she performs tasks that she never would have imagined herself to be able to do, even after her time at Varykino, and she is so amazed at herself and so proud of herself that she almost manages to forget, sometimes, how incredibly dangerous the process of gaining so much knowledge and mastering such abilities ends up being. 

**11.) Mission:** There’s a slightly younger girl from her original training class who went on several missions with her, during the occupation, and with whom she got on fairly friendly terms, and this girl, Emmé Harwood, has a mouth that is positively made for kissing, but she seems entirely oblivious of her own charms, so Betté decides to make it a personal mission to let Emmé know about them, beyond any doubt, and, eventually, when hinting doesn’t seem to work, she finally gives in and goes for the direct approach – grab and kiss – with most favorable results.

 **12.) Retire:** Amilla wants her to retire when the Queen’s first term is up (whether she decides to run for a second one or not) and move back out to Vis, find a man to settle down with, and raise babies who can grow up to marry Amilla’s babies, and she simply doesn’t have the heart to try to explain to her virtual sister just why this is not at all likely to ever happen, though she’s careful to let Emmé know that the main reason is that she loves her far too much to ever leave her.

 **13.) Attrition:** The attrition rate is killing them: they can’t get enough new handmaidens trained up quickly enough in schools of ten to keep up with the steady losses that they’re suffering every handful or so of weeks (essentially like clockwork), and so the decision is made (against the Queen’s wishes, but it’s made, nonetheless, because it has to be) to increase the size of the training classes to twenty and to combine and recombine survivors by talent and rank into new groups within the overall coterie after every new attack.

 **14.) Bad:** She has a bad feeling about the trip the Queen has scheduled to visit the colony and spice mines on Ohma-D’un from the moment she first hears about it: the journey to and from the Water Moon simply provides too many chances for attack or for sabotage or for something bad to happen because something has simply accidentally gone wrong.

 **15.) Thought:** When the bounty hunter hurtles the canister at them like a detonator, her first thought is that it must be an explosive, so she flings herself forward and down onto the device without a second thought, and it isn’t until her lungs start to burn and her skin begins to blister painfully that the fact that it is a gas bomb rather than an explosive one registers, by which time it is already far too late for much of anything, save for a rather grimly satisfied thought that at least her body should keep most of the poison gas from reaching anyone else in the party . . .

**Author's Note:**

>  **Clarification Note:** One of the reasons why my AU **Star Wars** series _**You Became to Me**_ is so entirely not even nearly complete has to do with the fact that I really started writing at the wrong end of the prequel trilogy for an AU (in my defense, though, when I started what became my _Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith_ trio, which is over a million words long, I thought I was doing a sort of one-shot fix-it based on an idea I got for "fixing" RotS by changing something that happens very near the end of James Luceno's EU novel _Labyrinth of Evil_ , which is set immediately prior to RotS). One of these days, I fully intend to rectify that problem by going back and starting from the beginning, with an AU rewrite of TPM, which is why I took the time to do a character study sketch for a supporting character like Betté. She'll be showing up again, in a more prominent role, whenever I get around to that AU rewrite of TPM. Folks might want to keep that in mind when reading this, since technically this is spoilerish for an AU novel that I haven't gotten around to writing yet!


End file.
